


Between What Is Said

by Ilthit



Category: American Gods (TV)
Genre: Gap Filler, M/M, Wordcount: 100-1.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:20:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21627496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ilthit/pseuds/Ilthit
Summary: Salim has found his Jinn. Now what?
Relationships: The Jinn | Ifrit/Salim (American Gods)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 35
Collections: 300bpm Flash Exchange November 2019





	Between What Is Said

**Author's Note:**

  * For [yujacheong](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yujacheong/gifts).



> Between what is said and not meant, and what is meant but not said, most love is lost.  
> \- Kahlil Gibran

Salim isn’t sure what he had been expecting. Being sent away, perhaps. There is a part of him that had always expects very little and has learned to take it philosophically when God denies him even that. He cannot read the Jinn, cannot say whether he is welcome. But he has not been sent away, and so he stays. 

He stays, love warm and steady in his chest, a certainty like that of divine truth. 

He has never been one to wrestle with God.

\- 

“Are you angry with me?” he asks again when they stop at a gas station, the motorcycle cooling under the rusty overhead canopy while the gas slushes into the tank. 

“Annoyed, perhaps. You shouldn’t be here.”

Salim is not sure how to be less annoying. It has been a problem in the past. He told himself he would fight to stay, to speak eloquently of his love until the Jinn sees that he does want him after all. Now that the time has come, that plan seems to him too selfish to execute, so he says nothing, hangs his head, and hopes to get away with staying anyway.

“I’m getting a drink. What would you like?”

Annoying or not, Salim cannot help the smile that spreads on his face. “Orange juice, if they have it.”

\- 

At the next stop, they know each other in the bathroom stall. 

It is quick and ferocious, and the heat of the Jinn’s fire burns down Salim’s throat. There is an edge to it he does not remember, but all the same he is turned liquid and limitless by this love. He weeps in the aftermath, swallowing gulps of air, trying to force himself to be quiet in case someone, anyone comes in. 

The Jinn kisses his wet lips, and everything is—almost—just how he wanted it to be. 

-

“You’re not planning on keeping him, will you?” says Wednesday in that tone of dismissal he has perfected. The Jinn is not in the mood to be swindled into wanting something he doesn’t want. He inclines his head and says nothing; that is often the best policy with Wednesday. 

The old man laughs and raises his glass. “Get your worship where you can, eh?”

He is surprised by the flash of anger, but burns it out as soon as it rises. Anger, also, is the Devil’s tool. 

\- 

“You have taught me how to love.”

The Jinn catches Salim in his arms and kisses him, kisses him, hangs on to dear life. 

He is learning. He may be learning.


End file.
